I will die to protect you
by shadoewhunter
Summary: Kakashi's training detour into the mts. leads to sad part of Leaf history. Naruto, Sasuke & Sakura learn of the Konoha sprit of protection, sacrifice & what it means to be a Konoha shinobi. Set post Zabuza & Haku story arc. Team 7 adventure story.
1. Unexpected Trouble

Disclaimer: Me no own nuthin except my kakashi key-chain and mangas.

This story just magically appeared in my notebook the other day. I don't know if I should bother continuing so, depending on reviews…shrug if I get more than 5, I'll continue or else I'll call it a failed attempt. This is a **non-pairing **fic, just adventure/fun and exploring the Konoha spirit of fire, sacrifice, and protection.

((set after episode 18, pre-19 on a detour back to the Hidden Leaf village. My first attempt at Naruto Fic, so please be nice…btw it does get better.

**I will die to protect you**

"Ai Sensei! Why are we taking this stupid way back to the village?" Naruto whined, trudging along the rocky gravel trail behind their teacher, who strode along with his nose in a well-read orange book, doing an excellent job of ignoring every word coming out of the twelve-year-old's mouth.

"It's cold and rocky and windy and cold and rocky and windy and cold…" the blond boy complained half-heartedly, frowning unhappily as he kicked at the rocks in the dirt. He was a hero! They had saved the village and the little boy, the bridge was going to be built and they'd beaten the bad guys. He shouldn't have to be stuck next to the stupid pompish guy longer than absolutely necessary. Glancing over at the black-haired boy, he stuck out his tongue. The other boy wasn't paying attention though. Sasuke lwas looking upwards, peering at the sky in his usual annoyed and slightly haughty manner.

"Looks like it's going to snow." he said, shooting their sensei a "look" that accused him of knowing better and ordered the Jounin to do something about the situation. The sleepy-eyed teacher gave no response of having heard and kept on reading.

Naruto sighed loudly and proceeded to turn his attention to Sakura who was carrying her bag silently as she casually attempted to peek at Sasuke every few seconds.

"Oi…Sakura-chan, do you have anything to eat?" The girl Genin blinked then rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Eh? What? Of course you can't have anything because we just ate breakfast two hours ago." Her inner-self screamed much more loudly in her head, "Pig! You're totally not like the awesome Sasuke!"

Naruto sighed again.

"Even a little?"

She shook her head.

"We have to practice conserving supplies. What if we were in a real emergency?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at her words._She wouldn't be saying that if it was Sa-su-ke-kun asking. Meany. Why does she like him so much?  
_

"As if that'd ever happen," he said, easily dismissing all their recent events and the deaths that were days in the past.

"Shut up, moron." Sasuke said in annoyance, tossing his black hair back. Naruto snarled with a gleam in his eyes.

_Stupid Sasuke, I'll show you..._But he didn't do anything outrageous, eyeing his teacher warily. The last time he'd tried kicking Sasuke and the two had ended up beating at each other senselessly, Kakashi had hung them both upside down in a tree for an hour as he blushed reading his book and Sakura had cooed to Sasuke worryingly. He shuddered at the memory distastefully.

Time wore on and traveling their way on the thinning mountain pass, the air got chillier and chillier, and soon they were surrounded by snowy hills and patches.

Sakura was getting worried.

"Sensei, are we going to prepare for staying in this snow? Are we going to rest at a village?" She asked in a concerned voice as began to have to loose track of an easily visible trail.

Kakashi turned his head back to look at her with a cheerful face, an amazing ability considering 85 of his face was covered by a black clothe mask.

"Don't worry, we'll be out of here in about a day and back in the Konoha forest area soon. We're not that far, just a different roundabout areaI wanted to train you guys in a different environment though so we're not going to be stopping at any village." The teacher smiled with his right eye, the Sharingan hidden once again underneath his forehead protector.

Naruto grinned brightly, his mood perking up at the possibility of competition. This makes things much more interesting.

"Training? Alright! I'm going to beat Sasuke!" He shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

Kakashi didn't say anything but gave a mental sigh.

Sakura shot Naruto a dirty look and growled at him, wagging a warning finger.

"If you lay your hands on Sasuke-kun again, I'll finish you off."  
Naruto stuck out his tongue at her. Kakashi interrupted his petty students.

"That's enough fun for you guys.Okay. Follow me." He said abruptly. He somersaulted onto the snow mounds at the sides of the pathway and started to walk casually on top of the snow without sinking in.

"Wow…" Sakura said. It reminded her of the powerful water battle with Kakashi and Zabuza, when both high-leveled ninjas had preformed Jutsus at lightening speeds while resting on top of the water's surface.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks and then both somersaulted up at the same time, only to sink suprisingly into the snow waist-deep.

"Kuso!!! It's cold!!!" Naruto yelled. Sakura jumped and landed in the snow unhappily sinking in as well. Kakashi squatted down and eyed his team 7 with an apathetic eye.

"Use your chakra like when you practiced with the trees," he suggested.

Sasuke called out as he tried and failed, tumbling through the annoying white fluff.

"The snow is too soft for us to find a firm ground to push the chakra down on." Sakura cried out hopelessly as she wavered momentarily on the surface then sank down again.

"Build a foundation then," Kakashi responded simply, then winced as he stood up again. His wounds were still raw and aching under his ninja outfit. The kids didn't notice anything though as they kept climbing and falling into the snow. Even Sasuke lost his patience and started to perform the Jutsu for his Grand Fireball no Jutsu. Kakashi casually flicked a rock into his mouth though and shocked the Uchiha boy into stopping.

"Have some patience if you ever plan on becoming real shinobi. Cultivate your abilities or else how can you build up your strength?" Kakashi said.

Finally after an hour of fighting in the snow, the two boys could gain enough footage to work their way ankle-deep in snow. Sakura was stable enough to run on top of the snow though and Kakashi beamed at her chakra control much to the chagrin of the other two. Kakashi walked behind them and the two continued to glare at each other enviable while Sakura looked on hopelessly, trying to explain the method. Naruto's constant taunting and complaints didn't help though.

"Look moron, go bother a tree okay? Bug off!" Sasuke retorted and started to walk farther down the side of the path. Naruto grinned suddenly.

"Fine, let's race if your think you're so good."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the bright-haired boy and smiled haughtily.

"If you want to lose."

The two flew across the wood spotted open, snow plowing up and flying in a flurry.

Kakashi called out alarmed.

"Hey! Naruto! Sasuke! Don't be idiots! Stop that!"

Naruto looked back grinning widely.

"Not till I win, Kakashi-sensei!"

Sakura snorted and yelled waving her fist.

"As if you could ever win over Sasuke!"

Kakashi looked on worried though. This wasn't the path and the snow covered terrain made danger spots indiscernible. He feared something would be hidden in the snow, invisible to the eye.

With Sakura in tow, he followed behind the racing pair. Naruto kept running, nostrils flaring as he shot Sasuke a look. The black haired grim boy was going just as all out as Naruto. The Hidden Mist incident had changed them to become more inclined to reveal their inner abilities. Racing down the snowy incline, Naruto and Sasuke never noticed the misty steam that came off the snow bank. Suddenly as their feet simultaneously stepped down on the snow, they fell through and crashed onto the black icy water below.

"AHHH!!!" The cry of Naruto's panicky voice sent Kakashi dashing forward, somersaulting from tree to tree.

Sasuke gasped, mind and body numbed. He couldn't think, couldn't move as the black water seemed to have a life of its own, pulling him down. Naruto's screaming was cut off when his mouth sucked in a mouthful of the bitterly cold black liquid splashed up by his own struggles. As he did so, he saw Sasuke's head tossing, struggling against being yanked down. Naruto fought to get his arms free but the water was sucking at him, grabbing his body. He heard the roar of the water all around and wondered if this would be how he would die.

"NOOO!!!" Naruto screamed infuriated by the idea that he'd die before becoming Hokage.

Kakashi spun in mid air, and landed on the water lithely. Even he was grabbed and sucked in though, as the water dragged at his legs, pulling him down.

"What is this stuff?!" screamed a struggling Naruto. Kakashi's eyes were narrowed as his hands preformed a Jutsu.

"A cursed Black Mark." He said and held his hands up in a "Bird" sign.

"Dispel no Jutsu!" The red glow that shot at the black water enveloped it but then the black water seemed to eat it up, dispelling the dispel.

"The Jutsu didn't work?!" Sakura cried and gasped in horror at the blight of Sasuke. The boy seemed to have lost all ability as he sunk down in the darkness.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi called out, the grey-haired sensei spun in place with such incredible speed he broke free of the grasping black evil. He leapt over Sasuke and as he did so sliced open the palm of his hand with his kunai, using his blood to scribble a sigil on the water around the boy, stepping only where he'd written in red. He stepped lightly and with the bloody hand, grabbed at the silent boy.

"Bleeding Wall No Jutsu!" He called out as he yanked out the boy and threw him onto the snow bank where Sakura was. The sigil trapped the black water, the icy water steaming as it burned from the blood. Naruto felt Kakashi's hand on the back of his jacket as the Ninja repeated the move and grabbed Naruto.

"Bleeding Wall No Jutsu!" Naruto flew into the air and crashed down onto the snow bank beside Sasuke.

"Kakashi Sensei!" Sakura cried in horror as the half-dazed Sasuke watched in shock as the older Ninja seemed to falter, hand flaying to his chest and suddenly half-stepped off the sigil. The water splashed up and the man was falling, falling, and crashing down into the ice-cold blackness, the water pulling him down. The water churned and the three students were left in shock on the snow bank by the broken water's edge.

"Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke managed to saw when a blast shot up from the water and the Ninja landed in the snow with a crouch. He was breathing hard and his visible right eye narrowed in pain.

"Damn." He said in barely a whisper, and then fell forward, tumbling down into the snow, blood from his opened chest wound staining his shirt and the snow.

Author's Note:

End of the first chapter? How'd it go? Please review! I apologize for anything that didn't go right. Gomen Nasai!

EDIT: updated chapter 1 with some minor changes. i didn't like the way it was before. this is a little better. enjoy and review!


	2. A Glimpse into the Past

Disclaimer: Own nada. Well….last time I checked my brain was still copyrighted to me so I might have that…..

            Thax to the people who left reviews and please keep them coming. It's Fanfiction.net's currency for love…heehee 

            Here's the next chapter. I'm working on the third right now and should have it up in a week? We'll see if my muse Hikawa Kiyoshi agrees. ^ ^

CHAPTER 2

            Kakashi's first realization as he opened his eyes to the world again was the dull ache inn his chest and Naruto's whisker marked face looking with wide eyes onto his face and one visible dark grey eye. The gennin's face split into a wide grin

            "Sensei! You're finally awake!" He yelled excitably. Kakashi winced at the boy's enthusiasm but couldn't help but smile under his mask. 

            They were in a small cave and a fire was crackling quite sadly by the opening, Sasuke and Sakura coughing as they tried to get more fire than smoke out of the tiny pile of firewood. Little bits of charred messes lay all around the cave opening.

            Sakura turned and smiled sheepishly.

            "Gomen Nasai Sensei. You were out for two hours and," gesturing to the pitiful fire, "We're not that good at the small details. We've been trying to keep a fire burning for the past hour." Naruto cut in with an evil laugh.

            "And we're down to no more firewood because Sasuke's first attempt with Grand Fireball No Jutsu nearly charbroiled all of us into fried Shinobi!" That explained the charred marks all around. Sasuke looked haggardly annoyed. 

            Kakashi gave a slight wince as he pushed himself upright. Apparently the kids had dragged him from the snow bank after the escapade with the Black Mark. He was disturbed that there were still any of these haunted areas of land around. It was essential to get the news to the Hokage as soon as possible. 

            He helped team seven get a decent fire started, sent Naruto and Sasuke to gather firewood and set Sakura to the side sorting out their supplies. The two boys came back, still subdued from the problems they had caused earlier; even Naruto was especially helpful in feeding the fire although he still managed to sneak in one more snick remark about the earlier failed Jutsu. Sasuke gritted his teeth and ignored him. 

            After they all settled down, Kakashi having changed his own bandages and had all of them eat nutritious food bars, Sakura was the first to mention the afternoon's disturbance.

            "Sensei, what was that water? Why did it drag everyone down?"

            Kakashi's sleepy eye didn't look up as he continued to stare into the fire. 

            "Years ago, a renegade ninja stumbled upon a lost forbidden spell. The Spell of Immortality. He kidnapped and kept genins and chunnins captive for experimentations. These ninjas were tortured and died horrible deaths; some had their bodies mutilated to the point where their very soul cursed the lands that have been defiled with these evil acts and the hunt for this spell. The spirits, perverted and morphed were mostly captured by the Fourth Hokage and released through a jutsu in the memorial hills at the Hidden Leaf village. But some…"

            His eyes and forehead protector somberly reflected the flickering light of the fire as he continued. 

            "Some seeped into parts of nature. A tree, a glade."

            "A spring," he finished softly.

            Sasuke listened, his eyes disturbed.

            Sakura had her mouth covered in horror.

            "That was the spirit of a shinobi? A leaf ninja?" She asked

            Kakashi nodded.

            "Most likely. The renegade traitor was a Hidden Leaf of great power and preferred to keep to his familiar areas to get his victims."

            Naruto's eyes were slit as he looked at their grey-haired sensei.

            "That's just so…sad." He whispered huskily. Kakashi's eye drifted over but the blond took no notice of his gaze.

            "To try so hard, to have finally achieved their status as a ninja, and then to just loose it all." Naruto's voice was unnaturally subdued. He dreamt of attaining the Hokage title and making everyone acknowledge his presence as more than just a vessel for the Nine-Tails. Kakashi had heard his boasts more times than he'd have liked and always felt the boy spent too much time ranting and not enough observing and learning from others, but the look of genuine sorrow for the lost shinobi made Kakashi realize again that the boy had a gentle heart.

            He wondered again why the Third had felt he'd be the perfect teacher to these three misfits.

            "Why'd the spirit attack us?" Sasuke asked pointedly, arms crossed.

            "It is…embittered." Kakashi sought for the words to explain. He'd been quite young, even before his chunnin exam at 6 when his own master had touched on the topic and he struggled to convey the depth of the spirit behind this situation.

            "The Konoha Spirit is one of protection. It is a spirit of fire just as we are the Hidden village of the Fire Country. The ninjas of the Hidden Leaf are all tied to this spirit fo protecting the special ones we care for." He looked up from the fire where he'd been sitting alone with his back to the cave opening, and his gaze fell across the fire caught each of them.

            "Sasuke. Sakura. Naruto. You all have this spirit of fire as well. One day you may find that true strength comes from protecting those precious to you. But these murdered shinobi…" He gave a slight shake of his head, saddened by the memory of pain that had been in his own late teacher's eyes when he'd told him and his two teammates the story.

            "They were murdered, tortured and their bodies, souls, and lives defiled for an end and meaningless purpose by one of their own. It was a total violation of the very spirit that is Konoha. This spirit of protection was destroyed, the soul perverted, and so," Kakashi shook himself out of the unusually serious mood that had overtaken him and leaned forward again with his one visible eye drooped.

            "It seeks to kill out of revenge. It wants to take the lives of those it comes in contact with, _especially _Leaf Ninjas. It feels forsaken by the spirit and so in turn, has forsaken this spirit of protection and love." The silence that ensued was interrupted only with the crackle and pop of the fire burning and reaching into the tree branch's sap.

            "But sensei, how do we get home now? We can't just leave the spring where it is. Others might come across it and they might…" Sakura spoke, picking at her empty wrapper.

            "Ah, that's where we come across a minor problem," Kakashi said, hunching down and thinking. The problem of how to deal with this spring as well as contact the Hokage had actually been on his mind since he'd awoken.

            "I need to stay here and deal with the spring in case of others wandering into the area. That means someone of intelligence will have to take a message and go to the village to inform the Hokage." 

            "Hmmm…" He raised his eyebrow as he looked at Naruto.

            "Won't be Naruto because he'll probably be lost no matter how much help I give him in preparation." Naruto hmphed angrily and sat back pouting.

            "Sasuke will try to not follow whatever specific orders I give and try to take matters into his own hands. Plus I don't think Kuroune won't like you." The dark haired boy glared his usual glare but refused to be goaded into making a comment.

            Kakashi shrugged. 

            "Well, that leaves the only one on the team decently intelligent." Sakura blushed.

            "Umm, Kakashi-Sensei?"

            "Hmm?"

            "Who's Kuroune?"

            "Oh." Kakashi smiled with his eye in an arch.

            "You'll find out tomorrow."

            "Bet it's something stupid like his Thousand Years of Pain," Naruto hissed to Sakura out of the corner of his mouth. The pink-haired girl rolled her eyes.

            "Shut up Naruto."

            Kakashi clapped his hands together, ignoring the white bandage wrapped tightly around his right hand. 

            "Time for bed, kiddies."

            The three kids starred at him with dropped jaws as the same thought popped into their heads at the same time.

            "We have to sleep together?!"

**********************

AN: Yea! Due to requests & reviews, I have continued. Same rule applies, no reviews, then I won't take the time to keep writing. Hope you enjoyed what I did write though and thax for reading! ^ ^ Doomo!


	3. Beneath the Beneath

DISCLAIMER: Meow~ this is the usual get-up, I own nada. Umm…**blink**

So why are you all staring at me???

This is Chapter 3! Yuppie! **grin** I'm almost done with CH. 4, but finals week may hold me up with finding time to type it up. We'll see….

Arigato for reading! You make my day! Urrr…night…?

Chapter 3

            Sasuke opened his eyes to the sight of his sensei sitting by the cave's opening, a thin whisps of smoke from the white smoldering fire dancing lazily up to the ceiling before being blown apart by the chilly winter wind. Sasuke didn't move at all but just starred with narrowed eyes at the Jounin. When they had been eating earlier, the shinobi had declined any of their help in changing his bandages, shucking off his green jounin jacket and pulling up the black bodysuit top to change his bloody bandages. Naruto and Sakura had been horribly disappointed because the Shinobi had kept his mask on. Even Sasuke had to admit that having the chance to finally see if Kakashi was really so ugly that he needed to wear a mask was true. Or perhaps it was the other way around…

             The moon was a crescent in the sky, but the trees shadowed and filtered the light so that it fell in pools on the cave's inhabitants. Sakura breathed deeply as she lay curled with her head tucked into her arms on the side of her pack. Naruto snored wheezing with one leg bent up and an arm thrown over his face. The jounin by the cave opening sat against the wall, one leg up. The moonlight flickered briefly on his face, crossing down one pale cheek, a sight that made Sasuke blink. The copy ninja actually had his mask down?

"Something wrong?" The sensei's voice called and Sasuke started, realizing that the older man had known he was awake the whole time. He sat up.  
            "Why are you up?" Sasuke demanded, crossing his arms. Kakashi turned his head slightly towards his student and Sasuke saw that the mask was in its usual place again. 

"Nothing really. I wrote a note for Sakura to deliver tomorrow to the Hokage and decided to stay up," the masked shinobi said. The ninja's eyes were not visible, hidden in the shadows of his face. Sasuke wondered if the mask had ever been out of place and the glimpse of the pale cheek was just a figment of his imagination. Feeling a sudden impulse he blurted out the question that seemed to haunt Kakashi.

"Why do you always wear a mask? Others have them occasionally but you never take yours off." His eyes narrowed, searching the shinobi's face, trying to discern amongst the hidden.

"Why?"

Kakashi looked weary as he sat there, splattered with the crescent moon's light.

            "Why do you want to know?"

            Sasuke was surprised. He had expected the older ninja to just refuse to respond. 

            "I want to know why you hide your face from the world," he said. Kakashi's droopy eye starred blankly at the floor.

            "Ninja's are supposed to be invisible. But individuality makes you easy to read and understand. As a shinobi, you must learn to see beneath what's hidden and be even more hidden yourself." Kakashi thought the lame logic he gave sounded hollow and meaningless even to his own ears but Sasuke said nothing to dispute him.

            "Besides, maybe I just have a really ugly scarred face." Kakashi's eye closed in a smiling arc. Sasuke snorted a little. He could never grasp nor understand their sensei's non-chalance that often times bordered on silliness.

            "Beneath what's hidden. But you Kakashi, are beneath the beneath." Sasuke was surprised that he had spoken out loud but after all the team had been through, he remember most the set of Kakashi's stance and his reassuring face as he told them that he'd never let his comrades die. He knew their sensei would never let them down, would never betray their trust. Sasuke couldn't trust him because six years ago he had lost his ability to trust. But Sasuke could respect, and he wanted to solve the mystery of the shinobi that he had decided to respect. He had to know. 

            Kakashi said nothing.

            "You are the Copy Ninja. You have the Sharingan. How did you get the Uchiha Clan's heritage? Are you that horrified about this Black Mark to be up and awake?" Sasuke demanded answers in his confrontational way.

            Kakashi's eye looked away still and his slight shift of the shoulders caused the moon's cast shadows to make him seem older, wearier, and not human.

            "Don't force yourself to be alone Sasuke. After a while, you will find you have hidden yourself so well, worn the mask of duplicity so perfectly that not even you yourself can find what is truly you." Kakashi's voice was soft in the dead of night. The snow outside bled in the light of the moon. 

            "The Konoha spirit is one of protection, sacrifice and most importantly, love." Kakashi's eye, which seemed so sad, so tired, so aged in the light crinkled up in a smiling arc that did not have its usual cheerfulness, but a more genuine sorrow. 

            "Don't leave those precious peoples alone Sasuke. I will never leave you guys behind. I will die to protect you." His tone held finality to it and the ninja got up and walked out of the cave, bowing his head as he trod under the moonlight. Sasuke starred at his teacher for a minute, the lonely figure shadowed by the moon's beams as well as by his own life, and then he went to his sleeping mat. Only as he was drifting off to sleep did he realize that Kakashi had never addressed his Sharingan eye. 

**********

AN: Finished! Sorry it's so short! I didn't want to overdue the sentimental moment there in case Sasuke went too OOC. **nervous chuckle** Kakashi is really dark and moody of late isn't he? Well, I think that dealing with this whole event has reminded him of the sudden loss of the Fourth at such a young age, as well as his solitude in the world. **sniff sniff** so sad…

            I've been reading The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, a set of Graphic Novels by Vertigo. I strongly recommend if you don't mind angst and macabre stories. Dream makes me sad. I think he's been affecting my writing. 

            Okay! Thank you for reading once again and until the next chapter, please read and review! Doomo Arigato!


	4. Reflections

DISCLAIMER: I have no brain. Thank you and please proceed to the following story. Arigato.

Here's the next chapter….me think I was getting a little OC….what do you think? Please provide me with feedback. It makes life a lot more interesting that way. ^ ^ Thax!

BTW, got my first ever flame today. Wow…I didn't even know these things are for real! I always thought they were like an urban legend or sumthing! **eyes wide in amazement** wow, they're actually people who experience the necessity to delve into the hollows of their irreverent souls to harshly and cruelly tear down the flimsy walls of ego holding up young fanfic writer's hearts and minds. I don't mind flames from people who have stories posted, because then I can see wut is *good* and inspire, so people. If you flame, please use a username that has a story posted so I can learn from the true self-appointed masters of the fanfiction world. BTW…if it sucked that much, why bother even reviewing? **keeps watching Rourouni Kenshin: reflections** 

CHAPTER 4

_::small one::_

_::come to me, small one. leave the stupid masked one::_

            Naruto stirred awake. He could have sworn that he'd heard a voice in his mind, a voice that tugged at him and made him think of the spring. It was a spring built on the bitter memories of the past and being reminded of the story that Kakashi had told them made his heart ache and his grin dimmed a little. 

            "Ohayo Naruto. Here's some food bars." Kakashi squatted down by the kid and proffered him some nutrition bars that came with their travel packs. How he missed the food that Tsunami had made. Naruto wondered if he should mention the mysterious voice in his head.

            _::No. Don't tell. Don't trust::_

            "But he's Kakashi-sensei…"Naruto argued with his mind out-loud. Kakashi's looked perplexingly at him.

            "Hmm?"

            Naruto waved his hands and forcing a huge smile, grabbed a food bar. He'd die before admitting to temporary insanity.

            "Nothing sensei!" Kakashi's one visible sleepy eye lingered on the blond boy but he was already tearing at his food so the masked shinobi mentally shrugged and said nothing.

            Sasuke and Sakura were outside the cave organizing what Sakura would and would not bring with her. The pink haired girl looked at the black haired boy and blushed.

            "Sasuke-kun?" she ventured. The boy didn't even look up and his response was barely short of a retort. 

            "What?"

            Sakura's heart ached a little more and she bit her lip.

            "Nothing."

            Sasuke shot her a look as she bent over again folding the small packages into her sack. He had been thinking of Kakashi's words and wasn't even really paying attention. He knew Sakura was obsessed with him; it was kind of hard not to have noticed. He really thought that she was annoying sometimes, always tailing him and following him around. She would never understand how it was, living for revenge of the dead. But…

_            "Don't force yourself to be alone Sasuke. After a while, you will find you have hidden yourself so well, worn the mask of duplicity so perfectly that not even you yourself can find what is truly you." Kakashi's voice was soft in the dead of night. The snow outside bled in the light of the moon. _

_            "The Konoha spirit is one of protection, sacrifice and most importantly, love." Kakashi's eye, which seemed so sad, so tired, so aged in the light crinkled up in a smiling arc that did not have its usual cheerfulness, but a more genuine sorrow. _

_            "Don't leave those precious peoples alone Sasuke. I will never leave you guys behind. I will die to protect you."_

            Sasuke looked at the quiet girl, the genin's pink head bobbing slightly.

            "Sakura." His voice was low and Sakura thought she was dreaming at first. 

            "We will be here. Waiting for you to get back." His eye met hers and a thousand possibilities whispered past the two of them, a chilling winter wind that was both warm and cool.

            "Don't take too long," he whispered.

            She smiled happily, eyes blinking repeatedly and Sasuke felt a feeling of reassurance and comfort in his chest looking at the happiness that his few and meager words had brought to her.

            _::Is this what you mean, Kakashi-sensei? Is this what it feels like to not be alone?::_ Sasuke thought.

            "Thank you Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered back.

            Kakashi and Naruto came out and Kakashi was still wearing the gloved hand-guard for his right hand on his belt. The bandaged hand looked awkward and out of place.

            "Ready to go, Sakura?" Kakashi said. Sakura nodded, shooting Sasuke a bright-eyed glance.

            "Hmm." Sasuke could feel Kakashi's gaze on him but when he glanced up, the older ninja was fumbling with his bandaged hand. He took out a kunai and sliced open his finger, tapped out a scroll from his vest and smeared his blood on it, sealing the contract. After a quick series of jutsus, he finally ended by slapping his hands and the scroll down on the ground.

            "Summoning no Jutsu!"

            With a puff of melodramatic smoke, a wolf-looking dog with slanted eyes and huge over-sized teeth appeared. The three students starred at the animal which eyed them was a non-chalance, as if trying to decide whether to eat them or pee on them. 

            "This is Kuroune." The named scratched his head with his hind leg and gave Kakashi a You-better-have-a-better-reason-than-last-time-for-summouning-me. 

            Kakashi sweat-dropped.

            "Kuroune, take my student Sakura to the Third. We need to get this message to Konoha as soon as possible." A message slip appeared in his hands and he handed it to Sakura. The girl slipped it into her pouch. Kakashi placed his hand on Kurourne's head as he turned to the girl, ruffling the dog's fur.

            "The Hokage will understand. Tell him to come quickly. We will try to deal with it as well as we can." Kuroune whined at his master's voice. Naruto wondered if he understood what Kakashi was saying then rolled his eyes. Of course he did, or else how did Kakashi give him directions?

            Kakashi's reminiscent eye looked into Sakura's. He seemed almost regretful and his voice betrayed a tinge of sorrow. 

            "I'm afraid Yondaime never got the chance to teach me how to perform this particular Jutsu." The dog licked his hand, feeling the sadness in the shinobi. 

            "Okay! Safe trip, Sakura." Kakashi smiled and waved at the girl as she walked off, the big dog at her side. Naruto jumped up and down excitably. 

            "Sayonara Sakura-chan!" Sasuke didn't wave, but he did meet the girl's eyes and give her a small nod. 

            _::stupid girl. You'll be too late.::_

            Naruto started but as he glanced around, he could tell that neither his sensei nor Sasuke had head the voice. 

            _::the masked one will pay. You will all pay::_ The voice's words were sinister but the voice was soothing and Naruto felt lulled by its calming tone.

            _::why are you talking to me? Who are you?::_ Naruto hissed back in his head. Kakashi had turned, fixing his bandage while telling Sasuke to go place their packs back into the cave.

            _::come to the spring small one. Come and I will tell you::_ Naruto heard the pretty voice and almost closed his eyes. How nice the voice sounded. The voice made perfect sense. 

            "Naruto!" Kakashi called to the small blond genin, waking him out of the daze and for a second he was left standing unsure of where he was or what he was doing. 

            "Huh?" Kakashi gave a little sigh. With his wounds not healing correctly in the snowy mountain area, having to worry about Sakura getting to the village safely as well as his own doubts about his ability to contain the Black Mark should anything happen, the last thing this shinobi needed was a Naruto even more half-minded than usual. 

            "Come on. We might as well have you and Sasuke run through some exercises and train until the Hokage and Anbu get here." Meanwhile, I can keep an eye on you two and the spring, the jounin added in his head. Naruto nodded, smiling sheepishly at his own lapse. 

            But as he followed his sensei and Sasuke through the snow covered forest towards the clearing the had left with such apprehension only the day before, he felt a twinge of some memory that called to him and he wondered why he felt glad that he was going to the spring.  

*******

AN: MUHAHAHA!! Finally! Another chapter! For all those reading, thank you!!! Thank you's go out especially to those who review as well. ^ ^ Arigato! Heehee, Kakashi is such a fascinating character, neh? However I think this story will help us see the levels of gradual maturity we see team 7 go through in both the anime & manga. After all, this is the only team Kakashi ever passed, there has to be a reason, neh? Hai Hai, sayonara until the next chapter! ^ ^ keep reading & reviewing!


	5. Losing Control

DISCLAIMER: Urggg…….**falling asleep on computer**

Hi all…welcome to Chapter 5 of the story. I'm really sorry for taking so long…I've been sick and had a lot of problems with changing internet providers….urrgg….anyways, umm…I tried so  hard to make this one is extra long due to special request and because I'm so willing to work with my reviewers, but my muse Hikawa Kiyoshi just wasn't cooperating… he must have been sick too…L. Anyways,  This one was intended to be light hearted but ….well…just read on. I hope you don't get mad…**sweatdrop**

Okay, have fun and please don't kill me if I don't get the next chapter up right away. Review review review!

CHAPTER 5

            Kakashi sighed for the umpteenth time as Naruto and Sasuke stopped training and just began to beat each other senseless. He wondered again exactly how the Yondaime had put up with him and _his_ own team's antics. It was an amazing feat that the Fourth had kept his good looks and not greyed in his 20's considering the team that he had been training was just as, if not worse, than Kakashi's own team seven. Thinking back Kakashi decided that it was probably worse because the children in the Yondaime's team had been of varied ages, Kakashi being the youngest at 5 and most "annoyed at the world in general". Children at 5 were way too cynical. Kakashi knew. He'd been one of those 5-year-olds. 

            "At the rate you two are going, I might as well read." Kakashi said out-loud to himself. He patted his pockets and was disappointed to find that his beloved Come-Come Paradise was nowhere to be found. As he sat there on the boulder trying to remember whether or not he had brought the book with him or had left it home next to his sole roommate, Mr. Ukki the potted plant, a snowball flew up and impacted right in the dead center of his face. The jounin blinked; the snow slushy slid slowly down his face and mask, landing with a wet sploot in his lap. 

            "Hahahahahaha!!!" Naruto was rolling on the ground laughing. Sasuke just stood to one side, face in hand, shaking his head at his companion's neantheral  action. Naruto was still thrashing in the snow holding his stomach. 

            Kakashi's sleepy eye didn't change in its droopiness as he used one hand to wipe the remainder of the snow off his face. Sasuke watched the ninja, wondering briefly if the masked sensei would jutsu Naruto out of existence in retaliation. He was still toying with the thought when his eyes widened in sudden shock. 

            Kakashi had disappeared and reappeared behind Naruto non-chalantly. The genin flew up into the air as Kakashi propelled the boy with one hand.

            "AHHHHHH—" The boy screamed as he flew up. According to the laws of physics, what goes up must come down and Naruto was no exception, especially in this case. He plowed head first right into a heavy snow bank and ended up with his derriere and legs being the only things sticking out kicking madly. Muffled cries could be heard. The jounin then appeared next to the legs in a puff of smoke, one foot resting on Naruto's rear. 

            "Don't fight a battle you can't win," he said and suddenly turned and eyed Sasuke, who had, at that moment, been holding a snowball in his right hand ready to throw. Sasuke's eyes widened and he swallowed hard, trying to will the snowball into oblivion. 

            "Hmm." Kakashi gave his usual non-commental grunt and moved back to his thought boulder, dry and well above the snow. 

            "Sasuke, drop the snowball, pull Naruto out and both of you take 10 laps around the spring to cool down." 

            The Uchiha boy mentally cursed the Jounin's seemingly third eye. As he pulled and yanked at the struggling Naruto's leg, the incapitated boy kept kicking and struggling and Sasuke finally snarled in frustration as he was kicked in the head for the fourth time trying to pull Naruto out. 

            "Damn…stupid….dobe…" he snarled as he yanked and tugged before the blond haired boy finally popped out of the snow, both of them rolling and tumbling before finally landing with identical "oomph"s. 

            Kakashi raised an eyebrow from where he sat slouched with his arms crossed. 

            "Nice snow angels. But that doesn't mean you're not running." Sasuke groaned. Naruto mumbled something that was lost in the snow.

            "Hmm?" Kakashi asked. The blonde's head popped up as he eyed his sensei with blurry eyes.

            "Do we have to sensei?" He tried to duck the snowball that magically appeared in front of him but at the high velocity that the ball was flying, it only made matters worse. Kakashi's sys continued to droop as he wondered where his reading material could be. 

Naruto and Sasuke cursed each other mentally and out-loud, running through a variety of obscenities and even inventing some new ones, mostly having to do with ancestors, parents, and the way people fornicate. All this went on as they huffed and puffed their way around the line that Kakashi had marked all around the spring with a stick. The place that they had broken through in the ice was still visible, the black murky water gently churning. The tracks of their previous battle with the water had been snowed over though, and the area was preserved in a primitive beauty. 

            Sasuke's hair was plastered to his neck and Naruto had steam rising from his head and breath as they rounded the side of the spring, calling out their 5th circle. Naruto was about to turn and make a breathless mocking comment when he felt all the powers of the empty voice pour back into his head. 

            _::Why don't you come to me?::_

            Naruto visibly blanched and Sasuke frowned as he nearly side-stepped into him, swallowing the sneer he'd been wearing.

            _Damn it, what now?_ he thought.

            Naruto remained frozen in his mind as the voice cooed again.

            _:: I want to meet you, small one.::_

            Naruto stumbled to a stop and his head turned jarringly to the spring at the beckoning of the voice. Sasuke stopped with him and frowning reached out to smack his arm. 

            "Naruto?"

            Kakashi heard the change in the air as the boys came to a stop and his head came up expecting to see the two fighting or trying to kill each other again. What he did not expect was Naruto stepping towards the spring and Sasuke at his side, staring in confusion. Kakashi's eye narrowed and he willed himself to their sides, his left hand on Naruto's shoulder.

            "Naruto." The boy's uncomprehending eyes looked at him in a dull, surprised daze, oblivious to the world and definantly not in total control of himself. The hair on Kakashi's neck went up and his brow furrowed as he barked at the boy to go back to the cave, hoping against hope that what he feared hadn't already taken control of his student. Naruto looked around him confusedly and after a few attempts to say something, he stumbled back towards the cave. Kakashi shifted his gaze to the equally silent Sasuke.

            "What. Happened?" He spoke softly, but with an unmistakable sense of command. His ears listened to the sound of Naruto walking out of the snow and entering the cave. Sasuke stared at the spring, perplexed.

            "I…I don't know. He just stopped suddenly and then started to head for the springs…It was like something had taken control of his mind or something." 

Kakashi's eye was now very serious looking as he listened to Sasuke.

            "Did he say anything?" 

Sasuke's own eyes narrowed as he tried to think back.

"Come…now," he murmured. Kakashi grabbed his shoulder and have him a firm shake, alarmed. 

"Sasuke? Do you hear something?"

The boy looked at him, the blackness of the water starring from between his black locks.

_::No. Don't trust the masked one.::_

"No."

_::He cares only for himself.::_

"Nothing." Sasuke turned and headed for the cave where Naruto had disappeared earlier, already drowned in the words that he readily accepted as true. He lived for revenge and Kakashi was just one more person in his way for retribution. He couldn't trust him. No, he couldn't.

Kakashi stood there not moving, listening to his second student disappear into the cave after the first. His eye fell onto the water and the black liquid seemed to churn mockingly at him. I have them and I will take them and there is nothing that you will be able to do, the water seemed to sneer at him. 

The masked shinobi stood there for a long time, wondering how he could hope to protect his team's young lives. How he could possibly keep a promise made long ago, to never let a teammate die again. 

**********

AN: Thax for reading. Umm…I hope this was okay. Read and review please ^ ^          


	6. Murphy's Law

DISCLAIMER: **drool** urrrrr…….

Hi all, here's the next chapter! Wow…this story is actually continuing…**scratch head** I'm amazed at the fact that I actually have people reading it. Thax everyone who's reviewed and I hope you keep doing so! Me love to read wut you all have to say! ^ ^ 

As by request, this chapter contains more action, less talk…hahaha…anyways, enjoy! ~

CHAPTER 6

            The sun was not yet up again in the sky when a weary, sleep-deprived Kakashi was alerted to the presence of Sasuke and Naruto standing quietly near where he was seated by the cave entrance. 

            "You two are not to leave this cave under no reason at all." Kakashi's voice was soft and low but not without a harsh unquestionable authority. 

            Sasuke said nothing but looked up at his teacher with a mocking gleam in his eyes. Naruto just starred past Kakashi into the white world outside as if the older shinobi did not exist at all. Kakashi's eye passed briefly from Sasuke to Naruto and then back to the more alert Uchiha. 

            _::Move small one, move. Time is running out for you::_

            _::Move? Why? I don't understand…::_ Naruto was totally confused and he struggled to not drown under the demanding onslaught of persuasive power in his own mind. 

            _::The masked one wants you dead::_

            Naruto looked back at Sasuke. The same blackness starred and glimmered back at his. 

            _::What do we do?:: _

            The voice didn't answer but Sasuke suddenly dropped as if his whole body had lost its ability to stand. Kakashi didn't hesitate and still barely got his arm under the boy's back, throwing his weight to his back leg as the black-haired teen tumbled to the ground against the wall. 

            "Sasuke?" The man inquired, his one revealed eye nevertheless wary of a trick. Sasuke's eyes almost fluttered as a choked weak gasp forced its way from his lips. The boy was struggling to push himself up as his body rested against his master's arm.

            "Sensei…I don't know why but I feel so…weak…I need….I need water." Kakashi was caught between a sincere concern for an ill student that was being taken advantage by whatever was in the water and being tricked into letting his guard down. Sasuke's breath was trembling and his eyes scrunched in pain as if being wounded. Kakashi shifted the boy to his shoulder and reached out with his bandaged right hand to the backpack that lay on its side near the banked fire which held all their supplies and utensils. 

            Suddenly Naruto felt an angry energy burst through him and light every nerve in his body on fire.

            _::Anger! Hate! Attack him!::_ Without hesitation, Naruto stepped forward in an attack and charged at Kakashi. The jounin, ever alert though, flipped forward neatly escaping the shurikans that had been thrown by the blond only to find Sasuke performing a Jutsu. 

            "Grand Fireball no jutsu!" The boy's black eyes gave no indication that he had any idea he was attacking his own teacher. Kakashi shifted in mid-air and flipped up again, somersaulting as he preformed his own Jutsu. 

            _::Nothing damaging. I don't want to hurt them::_ He thought as his hands spun. Naruto's eyes were gleaming red and physical changed were becoming obvious as his usual smile had now turned into a bloodthirsty snarl. Kakashi could have sworn that his canines were now visibly longer than usual.

            _::Damn. Whatever is affecting them has managed to provoke Naruto into using his Demon Fox Chakra. This is definitely not good.::_ Kakashi thought grimly. Sasuke struck first, kunais flashing in his hands as he spun at Kakashi, who ducked and threw himself backwards in order to protect himself from the scorching fireball the boy had produced. Kakashi back-kicked out at an awkward angle and threw his weight and power into the kick. He wasn't planning on hurting Sasuke though, just knocking him out of commission. However, Kakashi doubted his being able to do that in just one move. He was probably the one who knew his own team the best and he knew the horrible handicap that he had placed on himself not to harm them would prove vital to his ability to counter and attack. 

            Naruto leapt onto Kakashi, who threw himself underground to evade the wild boy, shooting out of the dirt back up to grab not Naruto but a confused and angered Sasuke. Kakashi jerked the boy into the ground as he slashed out with a kunai at the older ninja. Naruto shot up and back flipped towards Kakashi with his legs tucked in, a ribbon of shurikens flying out towards the ninja. Kakashi's kunai appeared in his hand as he unapologetically vaulted off of Sasuke's head and knocked the throwing stars out of the air in a wildly arc of his arm. He braced himself for Naruto's next attack when suddenly the boy just threw himself physically onto the ninja, clawing into his neck and back, sinking his teeth viciously into the grey-haired ninja's left shoulder.

            Naruto was going mad. He could not understand what was going on. He only knew that he was very angry about something, angry and mad, but he couldn't discern much more. 

            _::Come to the water.:: _The voice commanded Naruto, and because he had no idea what was happening, he obeyed the only coherent thought that he had.

            Kakashi had hurled the boy off his back, the blond Naruto nearly ripping a piece of the ninja with him as he flew into the air and landed on the ground near Sasuke. The black haired boy had managed to force his way free from the dirt, whether by his own strength or some power endowed by the force possessing him, Kakashi did not know. He breathed hard, shoulder bleeding, the bandage on his right hand lightly stained with crimson as his fingers gave a twitch. He knew at least a dozen ways to dispatch Sasuke and Naruto to the afterlife in one shot, but that option was not open to him right now. No matter what, he had to find a way to save his students.

            Naruto abruptly shot out of the cave at a dead run towards the spring. Kakashi knew better than to follow him, instead grabbing at Sasuke's arm to force the kunai the boy had been brandishing out of his hand. The boy's grip loosened as Kakashi pressed firmly down on a pressure point in the boy's right hand. Sasuke's left foot shot out from nowhere as his opposite hand swiped out with a shuriken and Kakashi was forced to leap up with both feet to keep from losing his balance or getting side-swiped. By the time he'd landed on both feet again, Sasuke had become a disappearing figure out the cave opening.

            Kakashi followed. Up until now, he still had only vague ideas of what was happening. Apparently something or someone had taken mental control over the team. His best guess would be the spirit controlling the spring. He cursed his own lack of knowledge on the subject and inability to have prevented it all from happening. Kakashi could not remember this type of event ever having occurred before in the history of the village and he thought to Sakura and Kouranai who should have reached the village by now. He only hoped they would be able to make it in time.  

            He'd watched over the two boys sleeping just that night and had thought that everything might just be a bad case of nerves, but a prickling sensation in the back of his mind had kept him awake and waiting silently by the cave entrance. Now…

            The two boys had stopped at the edge of the ice, just past where Kakashi had drawn out the circle for them to run around the day before. The rising sun bled down and spread out across the ice and snow, disappearing into the coppery black liquid. Kakashi was momentarily blinded in his left eye by the glare that reflected off the pureness of the snow. When he'd regained his sight and the painful bright light had passed, the genins had already moved onto the ice and were walking steadily towards the gushing water.

            "No." The cry was a whisper that only Kakashi could hear as he raced forward, mentally calculating which angle he could hit which boy to knock them both down to the ground away from the water, heart sinking as his mind knew what his heart tried to deny, that it was impossible for him to reach them in time. And before he was even halfway to them, the black water lapped up past the ice, curling tenderly around the legs of Naruto and Sasuke, lifting them onto the water's surface and then into the air. The ice around the hole cracked and broke, and the water turbulence increased, breaking the ice as strangely clear, black water churned upwards and onto the ice. 

            The water shot up into the air forming a physical wall between the two boys and Kakashi, who had to crouch down in order to stop so abruptly. He nearly growled in angry retaliation, furious at the force that had captured his team.

            "You shall not have them!" The boys became enveloped in a cocoon of black liquid that held them in place. Kakashi kicked out at the wall and felt the firm resistance, almost as if it were steel and not merely liquid. He grasped his right forearm and felt chakra course through his body as he gathered energy. The chakra's blue crackling glow radiated around him and focused around his hand as he pulled back his arm and plunged it into and through the wall, tearing at the barrier, splitting it in a cascading wall of water that soaked his uniform and flooded around his feet. He raced forward to the water's edge when a voice that hit every nerve in his body and seemed to be cooing caressingly into his ear stopped him straight in his tracks. The voice trickled along every nerve and seemed to touch places no lover had ever felt. His left eye widened in visible shock.

            _::Greetings masked one. My, how you've grown.::_


	7. A Pact With the Devil

            AN:  Sorry for taking so long! I've been really busy with college applications and stuff. But with that stuff (almost) all over, I hope to be back writing again! ^ ^

          _Daisuke Asakura_ Rocks BTW!!! Heehee

CHAPTER 7

            _::Fool. All of you are fools.::_

            Kakashi stood unmoving, not even making a sound, watching and waiting.

            "You are the spirit, the Black Mark cursed upon this land," he said not accusingly, but  matter-of-factly.

            _::Black Mark, yes. Much like the mark you wear on your arm.::_ Kakashi gave no sign that he'd heard, not even so much as a glance to his left arm where his Fire Country tattoo was. 

            "Why have you taken my students?"

            _::Hate. Revenge. Such simple things, don't you agree? But to one that is dead, it is all that I have. I can't remember very well anymore, for I am but a spirit, a memory. But hate, pain and suffering I remember. And Darkness help me, I will exact my revenge upon all of you.::_

            The two students rested on the surface of the water, trapped immobile and possessed in water prisons, clear, beautiful cages of water, blue and white and black. Kakashi's mind worked frantically as he listened to the Spirit. 

            _::And can you not believe my luck? Leaf shinobi here, and not one but three::_ His voice turned grim.

            _::I hate the leaf the most. Failures, who abandoned their promises and their loyalties, so-called ninjas who left us to die.::_

            "No one knew until it was too late—"

            _::Of course it was too late! Fool…do you know how many died? How many were cut open with their innards pouring out onto the ground as they screamed and cried? The screaming sounds that echoed away, ninjas left to die an honourless death amidst the smell of rotting flesh and spoiled blood? Do you understand?::_

            A figure formed out of the water, dripping wet with almost human features. The figure was man-like, with a head and feet, but it was merely a body shaped out of water, turning and cocking its head at Kakashi. 

            _::My teammate was burned over and over again. Burned until no more sounds would come from her mouth, until she couldn't' even beg for her own death, but that shinobi, our own sworn ninja merely laughed and kept on with his work.::_

            The figure spat the last word and reached out towards Kakashi.

            _::That is why you must die. All of you.::_

            Kakashi did not change his stance, but his muscles tensed, prepared for what \ever might come, whenever it came. His eye was narrowed; his sharingan would be utterly useless against an undead being. He was fighting a ghost, a vengeful spirit, prepared to slaughter for retribution. 

             "How did you gain control of my students?" He called out casually, trying to buy time as he struggled to invent a way of fighting the impossible. The water figure gestured with his hands toward the two students locked in their cages of water.

            _::It was quite easy. Once they came in contact with my current body::_ and here he motioned to himself in vile distaste_. ::I was able to gain access to their minds. However, due to your annoying jutsu, I only had suggestive control and influence. Had they been allowed to stay in the water for, but a little bit longer, they would have become perfect little blindly obedient bodies at my disposal.::_ The form drifted a little closer looking directly at Kakashi.

            _::And do you know what I will use them for? Your Jutsu was only a temporary block. I can break them easily and I will. You see::_ and he motioned to his water form_:: I am only a spirit with nothing left to me but revenge. Revenge on the village that left us for dead, the shinobis who failed to save us. I need a body, and these two are perfect.::_

            The water form seeped through the prisons and caressed the immobile form of Sasuke, running wet fingers across his neck and cheek. 

            _::This one's life is already consumed by revenge. He will be consumed by it soon, alone and as cold as he is now.::_ He moved over to Naruto and petted his blonde hair.

            _::And this one will do anything to prove himself. Anything.::_

            The figure cocked his head at Kakashi again and the pseudo face almost seemed to smile at the masked shinobi.

             _::A perfect pair. Perfect for my intentions.::_

            Kakashi could feel a cold chilling tingle run down his spine and he fought down a primal urge to shiver in response. He realized that the spirit would take over Sasuke and Naruto's bodies, and with the combined powers as well as the Fox Demon's spirit, be unstoppable, destroying not only the ninja villages but perhaps the world. Two decades worth of training honed to perfection kicked in and he starred back non-chalantly at the spirit embodied in the water made figure. 

            "I understand now." He said simply. The spirit nodded.

            _::I will have my revenge, masked one. I will destroy the shinobis. With the energy and power I've gained in these years plus the addition of these two weapons, I will be the destroyer of all Ninjas.::_ The figure did not laugh but Kakashi understood the mockery he held  in his voice. 

            "You're going to take over their bodies? How different are you then, from the one that killed you and your teammates? Your friends?"

            _::Shut up!::_ The spirit snarled at him. _::I do this for revenge! For retribution! You know nothing!::_

            But the accusatory question had hit a sore spot and the shinobi spirit thought once again how familiar the masked ninja seemed.

            _::You. I know you don't I? You can't be older than 25, 26.::_

            Kakashi ignored him and spoke again.

            "You died because of the control of someone else. Unless you want to become the killer you are taking revenge for, then let them choose for themselves if they want to fight." Kakashi reached up with his left hand and with an audible clack of the Konoha forehead protector, revealed his trademark eye and scar.

            "You see…I know about the price we all pay as well. The pain, the tears, the regrets. I know the feeling of being left behind, and the tearing inside that comes wit h leaving others behind. Don't take this course of action. Don't cause more regret for all of us." The spirit froze and did a double take at Kakashi's masked face and hissed. 

            _::You're that child…you're his child…::_

            The spirit straightened up and with a flick of his hands, brought Sasuke and Naruto's cages of water together, the water spinning and merging until Kakashi could not make out anything in the swirling mesh of colours.

            _::If you are so bent on proving the fairness of all this, I will give you a chance. Fight them. If you can kill them with their combined powers and my guidance, you win. If not and they kill you, I win…And there will be no one left to stand in my way. Not you, nor your master::_

AN: GOMEN NASAI!!! I know this is pretty short but the next chapter (should be) filled with action, so keep reading and reviewing!! ^ ^"


	8. The Windows of the Soul

Disclaimer: I'M NOT DEAD!!!! REALLY!!!!! checks AND I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!!!

Please read the Author's Note at the end. Thank you and enjoy after a long delay. cringe

Chapter 8

Drops of blood splattered messily onto the snow by Kakashi's feet but the jounin paid no attention at all to his own wound, both of his eyes were glued unblinkingly to the creation that stood knee deep in the swirling black water in front of him.

::_What the-::_

He could feel energy radiating as heat from the water, as the Sasu-Naru creation looked at him with confused and self-less eyes. When it, for he couldn't think of what stood before him in any other way, spoke the voice was overlapped and he could hear echoes of both Sasuke and Naruto.

"Who.._what is going…_why are we…_Kakashi-sensei!"_

Kakashi shifted his right foot a fraction of an inch back and centered all of his weight on the balls of his feet. What stood before him, unveiled from the curtain of water that the spirit had sent crashing down to the surface of the spring was a melding of bodies that he had never seen before. One side of the figure that stood before him still had Naruto's blonde hair and even slight shadowing where his whisker marks were, but the other side of his head had black hair and narrowed dark eyes. The spirit had done something that Kakashi had never thought possible, putting his words to combine the two genin students as a tool into a literal nightmare. Sasuke and Naruto's bodies had basically been melted into one, with one side still belonging to each individual.

"Sasuke! Naruto! Can you gain control of your bodies?" Kakashi called out sharply to them, hoping that there was still a chance they could break free from the Black Mark's bond before it all broke out into what would become a chaotic and bloody scene. Sasu-Naru shook its head, but the gesture was awkward as if opposite forces were trying to battle over which direction to move the head.

:: _Masked one, they will not be able to control themselves once I unleash them from me to kill you. Kill them and I will lose and your precious little village of loveless cowards will be safe_.::

The spirit had reformed its artificial liquid body again and stood mockingly above the water behind Sasu-Naru who fought to gain control of their united body.

"Sensei! We have.._i can't move anything!…_the body won't respond.._no! not like this!" _Their calls merely cemented what Kakashi had thought would be fact. They had no control over their own bodies right now and if he guessed correctly, they would soon lose control of their own minds. The spirit moved up to the boys, trailing water that splashed up in little whirls that would have been pleasing to look upon if not for the fact that it were held in the power of one that would enslave those that came near it.

"I won't kill them." Kakashi's quiet statement was not a threat but a mere reiteration of the facts. He would not kill the two, would not allow for them to be killed. He only wanted to stall for time, to stall until the third arrived and could safely dispel the spirit from the spring.

::_I know. And it won't be for a lack of trying either. You are his child, and I know you will live up to his name. But even the Hokage himself can'__t save you and the rest of this world from retribution. __Die then, if you wish_.::

With that, the spirit brought its liquid limbs around and wrapped itself around Sasu-Naru. His neck extended out like a shimmery black-blue snake and its head leaned forward until he seemed to kiss the boys on their lip and then push his malleable face into theirs suffocating them into his liquid body.

Kakashi had already dashed forward and vaulted off the snow bank directly at them. The water surged and gushed madly in a whirlpool before shooting out with tidal wave force against the ninja as he dashed forward to grab at Sasu-Naru. The last thing that he could see before the black and blue shadows of the cursed water filled the winter sky was the eyed of the two boys in their combined body looking at him with their individual fears and a glimmer of forlorn anticipation in Sasuke's eye. He'd already given up.

::_Don't!::_ he wanted to scream out at the boy but then the water rose up and he lost sight of them, for what he hoped wouldn't be the last time. That eye tore into his soul, like the eye of someone else he had seen long ago, shadowed without hope gazing back from a broken mirror stained with blood.

::_Please….don't give up hope…::_

Rome was not built in a day, but the fate of an empire can come crashing down in the mere matter of seconds. And as the wave slammed into Kakashi and came crashing down on the ninja, he saw a fate as destructive as the falling of an empire play out in front of him. Water-soaked and dripping, Sasu-Naru straightened up and turned to look at him. Where both eyes once were intelligent and individual, black orbs starred at him, the same reflective tint as that which shone in the water, like some oily stain upon nature.

Whatever had been Sasuke and Naruto in those eyes were now veiled in black. Kakashi had no time to stand and just think though, as the smaller ninja dashed forward arms thrown back, the glint of steel betraying the kunai in his hand. Kakashi ripped himself up from the water's clingy hold and vaulted backwards away from the charging Sasu-Naru. It spun upwards, angled towards him, the water spraying out from him is a beautiful spiral that defied gravity as the water droplets glittered black and blue in the frozen span of winter air.

_ ::This isn't just the spirit's intelligence. He's tapping into both Naruto and Sasuke's abilities and using them to combat together::_

Kakashi's thoughts flashed across his mind as he brought his arm up to block the first blow. Sasu-Naru kicked a roundhouse kick aimed at his head and when he blocked, shifted their momentum to hit the ground with their left hand, vaulting up and stabbing at his abdomen with their kunai. Kakashi smoked out into a log piece and an arm snaked around Sasu-Naru's neck to reveal the real jounin teacher as he pulled back with his weight to try to knock them unconscious. It probably would have worked if the spirit hadn't taken things into its own hands. The water that surrounded them splashed up and slid up Kakashi's uniform, forming a mask on his face above his own black mask. He couldn't breath.

Sasu-Naru pulled from Naruto's style and with animalistic style stabbed into Kakashi's arm with a kunai. Kakashi gritted his teeth and held on as black spots began to appear in his vision. Soon he would have to let go. Sasu-Naru made it immediate when he ripped up the jounin's sleeve and clamped down on his arm, sinking into his flesh with only the intent to get free driving it. Kakashi felt himself loosen and the boy slip away from him even as he brought his hands up to perform a jutsu that would counter the water mask that threatened to drown him where he stood.

His hands flipped to perform a jutsu that was a variation on the bleeding wall, his eyes sought out Sasu-Naru's. It was a strange meeting, four eyes starring at each other, none of them seeming to be alive. The sharingan gleamed even as it spun of its own accord, and Kakashi's own eye, haunted by flashes of his own inadequacies looked for life once again in the black holes of life in Sasu-Naru.

_ ::I won't believe this is the end. I won't let them be killed, especially by my hands. There has to be another way!::_

Having gotten rid of his water prison and sucking in what were his first breaths of air in the past two minutes, he called out to them in a low raspy voice.

"Sasuke! Naruto! Work together. I know you two can overcome this. This isn't just about teamwork, it's about your will power and belief! Are you willing to accept any more deaths? Are you willing to be used to kill those that we're suppose to protect?"

When the next attack came, instead of backing away defensively, Kakashi suddenly drove forward and deflecting a handful of shurikens, grabbed them by their strangely combined uniform of clashing orange and blue. He pulled them up out of the air and gave them a hard solid shake before throwing them down into the water. Sasu-Naru splashed down hard and sat there breathing hard and starring at him.

Blood ran down his shoulder and mangled right arm. A splash of crimson at his abdomen showed where his wounds had not yet healed. All that mattered to him though, was the figure in front of him in the water.

"Remember who you are. Remember what we are fighting for."

The spirit's voice seemed to mock him as it answered him softly from the waters.

_ ::I'm sorry masked one…but you don't seem to know them very well. See, they don't want to remember. What you don't seem to understand is that memories don't go away. Like me, they are a cursed burning scar that doesn't belong, one that bleeds a little more everyday. You can never make the pain go away. Never.::_

_ ::Until the day you die.::_

Author's Note:

I'm SOOOOO sorry! It's just that…okay, I can make excuses but you all would still be pissed at me anyways. I do apologize profusely for my extended absence from this story. I actually lost my notes for the plot line, so I hope it is still as enjoyable now as before. Early Merry X-Mas everyone, and pray that my muse stays with me. I will try to update the next chapter soon, before the end of the month. Thank you so much for reading and supporting me!

Please read & review. It's been a long time since I've written and I hope I'm still able to write coherently. This chapter is a bit more deep in thought than usual though, and I hope you can bear with me till the next one. Thanks.

((ooo..also, I have some one-shots from other series that I'd love to get some feedback on if you have time, so please check my stats if you have time. Thanks! " ))


	9. Lost Inside

DISCLAIMER: Same ol' thing. Don't kill me, I don't own Naruto & Company.

Sorry for the wait. Please enjoy and review!

((By the way, "_Tadaima_" is kinda like "I'm home." Basically what the Japanese use when they return home & which is suppose to be answered by "Okaeri Nasai". It hasa sentimental connatation.))

CHAPTER 9

The perfect child.

"Oh look at him! He looks just like his brother when he was that age."

"Hush. Don't speak of it."

"Oh I know. The Uchiha massacre. Such a terrible thing."

"Well, you know there's just a fine line between genius and insanity. I worry about that Sasuke child. I don't want my children to be around him."

_::I don't want to be a genius.::_ Sasuke screamed inside as he walked with his head bowed, quietly stepping past the gossipy mothers, past the fish-eyed children and down the street.

_::The perfect child. The cursed child. I won't be him. I will be BETTER than him.::_

He arrived at the front door of the apartment that he now called home. Many families had offered to adopt the newly orphaned child but he had coldly refused with a glare of disgustful hatred. The Hokage had stepped in and agreed to let him live here alone. He closed the wooden front door behind him as he stepped in and stood there, starring into a furnished but nevertheless empty room. He thought of the mothers that gossiped by the school without a care or worry, talking, dissecting, and wondering about him. About the perfect child.

Pain bit sharply in his left hand as he dug his nails into the palm, forcing himself to soak in the throbbing sensation.

::I will not cry. I will not be weak. I will not fail. I will not cry.::

Tears welled up in his eyes but did not fall as he choked out to an empty home that tore into him as painfully as the aching hole in his chest.

"Tadaima."

* * *

Sasu-Naru spun in midair, bearing down on Kakashi with their supers-speed, the older ninja waiting knee-deep in the ice-cold water. As the blur fell upon him, he shot up to meet them and grabbing out towards them, spin kicked the kids to shore, where they landed with a tumble, finally regaining control in a crouch, glaring up at him with dead eyes before charging right back.

"Stop wallowing in self-pity you two. Get a hold of yourself in there." Kakashi nearly snarled at them as he blocked off their attack, smearing red on Naruto's orange jacket.

"Life is harsh and tough. We're ninjas. We don't ask to be pampered or treated with love and tenderness. This life is our job, our duty."

Kicking their kunai out of their hand, Kakashi pulled back his right arm as if to stab Sasu-Naru but at the last moment, tucked his kunai under his grip and punched the pair straight in the face.

"Idiots! Do you know how many have died to protect this village? Can you even begin to understand what it means to be a Konoha ninja? It's giving without expectation of return. If you can't do even this," and here he tilted his head so that only his scarred sharingan eye starred gleaming at them.

"Then you should have never become ninjas."

* * *

"Sorry Naruto but I have a meeting with the other Academy instructors today. I'm really sorry, but let's eat ramen another night, okay?"

Naruto's huge smile slowly faded away to nothing as he stood there, watching Iruka's retreating figure. He wasted the rest of the afternoon lying on the branches of a huge oak tree at the side of the children's playground near the Academy. For once, he had nothing to say, no bragging to be done, no fights to pick. Instead, he was silent and quiet, spying not an enemy in the woods or following Kakashi-sensei in one of his many training activities. He was watching the children and their parents as they came and went.

He watching unmoving, the sun shining behind him, as little boys chased each other around in the sand. A small girl with brown pigtails swung on a swing as her father watching from the side. A mother scolded her son, who had managed to dirty himself up from head to toe. He giggled and laughed at her, rubbing his face with his hands so that you could grudgingly see clean patches on his face.

Two Genins stopped for a short while to play with the children. Laughing, they skipped lightly across the tops of the barred jungle gym dome, performing to the laughing delight and applause of the audience of children. Naruto looked on, silent and expressionless as he starred at the scenes played out before him. As the sun set and the air grew colder, the last group, a mother and her two children, a boy and girl, left for home.

"Come on, your daddy will be home soon!"

Naruto lay on that branch for a little while longer, no other soul in sight of the now abandoned playground. Then he jumped down and slowly walked home, hands in his pockets. Climbing up the ladder to his front door and pushing in the key, heard the click as he pushed the door wide open. He stood there at the opening, the forever-cold room in front of him and the forever-cold world behind him.

"Tadaima." He whispered to no one, a tear leaking down his left cheek, past his whiskered markings.

* * *

Sasu-Naru spat out a mouthful of bloody spit and snarled at Kakashi. The jounin could not allow himself to give up trying to break the spirit's hold from the inside with the pair's own will power. At that moment however, with the melded boys starring up at him, bloody spit running down their chin, oily black eyes boring into him and in a feral crouch, they looked more animal than human.

A brief image of a fanged Naruto with his seal weakening as he fought Haku flashed across Kakashi's mind. Should he kill them right now rather than risk the release of the Kyuubei or worse, the enslavement of their combined powers to the spirit?

Water splashed up onto the snow banks next to the two, lapping at Kakashi's heel. Where water had spilt onto the cold ground, ice was already forming, marred by the numerous footsteps of the two. Kakashi crouched forward, sliding his left leg back more, readying to shoot forward, one hand held slightly behind him, kunai ready.

"How old are you, Kakashi?"

The child looked up at his teacher with a dismissive glance.

"You know."

Yondaime's eyes crinkled as he grinned his huge smile, flashing his teeth.

"Humor me."

The masked child rolled his eyes.

"Six."

"Mmm…that's a young age. It's pretty late, you know. You should be home."

"That's none of your business, sensei."

_::How sarcastic can children get?::_ The thought flashed through the older ninja's mind. Yondaime climbed to the side of the small thin boy who sat on the roof of one of the innumerous buildings in the Konoha village. The ninja took in the beautiful view of the mountain where the First, Second, and Third had their faces carved. The Fourth's own features were just starting to be defined by artisans working on the mountain's side.

"Is something wrong?" The one known infamously as "The Yellow Flash" shifted a little where he sat next to Kakashi and risked a sideways glance at the boy-child. The tiny ninja said nothing. Yondaime looked down.

"I heard about White Fang." The child sat still and silent, as if deaf. Yondaime rested his hands on the cold metal rood, running his long fingers across the ridges of the tiles.

"He was an amazing shinobi-"

"He was a fool." Kakashi's voice hissed and cut him off.

"He betrayed what it means to be a ninja. He chose his emotions over his duty and caused more lives to be lost. He was weak!" Kakashi yelled out the last line and a group of crows that had been roosting on one of the communication poles at the side of the building were startled into flight, a flurry of black feathers filling the air.

"I will not be weak." Kakashi stated simply, head bowed, chest heaving, his fists held tightly at his side. His forehead protector, huge on him, gleamed in the setting sun.

Yondaime reached out slowly and caught one of the black feathers blowing past him. He twirled the stiff black feather between the index and thumb of his right hand. The feather flitted back and forth in his grasp.

"You know Kakashi…don't be so quick to cement what you feel for life. Choices will always have to be made. That is what you should have learned from your Chunnin exams." The teacher kept his own gaze level on the horizon splashed with the red, orange, and yellow remnants of the setting sun.

"Life isn't black and white. Humans are born with emotions. It's what causes us to hate, to envy, to betray." The feather spun, twirling round and round as he spoke.

"But it's also what causes us to love and sacrifice for others. That is what this village is built upon. That is what White Fang tried to achieve, no matter what resulted from his actions or how others view him."

He proffered the feather to the boy. The child ninja made no motion to take it, so Yondaime rested the feather on Kakashi's knee closest to him.

"There's no black and white way to see the world, Kakashi. Don't forget that or you won't be human."

Yondaime got up and Kakashi was left resting on the rooftop alone, overlooking the Leaf village that he'd been born and raised in. He reached down and picked up the feather without looking at it.

He was still holding it when he arrived at the steps of the home he had once shared with his father. His bags were already packed, all of his life showed into two black duffel boys. He'd asked for and received an apartment room on the outskirts of the village where he would not be disturbed by the stares of inquiring neighbors or children who had no qualms with asking invasive questions.

He didn't open the front door but climbed up to the open window of his living room, where the blood had been cleaned up but a brown stain still marred the grey carpet. It would have to be changed for whoever ended up living here. Kakashi hesitated from entering and just sat there, half in and half out, his old life in the once loving home to one side of him and the brutally lonely adult world that his father's ritual suicide in an attempt to beg forgiveness for himself in the eyes of the ninja village had thrown him into the week after he had just passed his Chunnin exams.

"I will not be weak," he whispered to the wind and let it blow the feather out of his hand, spinning a little before disappearing into the night. Then, turning around for what would be the last time, on the last day of his childhood, he entered his home.

"Tadaima."

* * *

_::Pathetically weak you are, masked one. You put his reputation to shame.::_ The spirit called out to him coldly. Kakashi ignored him, watching his two students, now one being, struggle to their feet.

_::We're running each other to the ground::_ Kakashi thought as blood slowly seeped from his shoulder and chest. Sasu-Naru was heaving and coughing up blood as they crouched on all fours in the snow. Crimson stained the snow that the two ninja's scuffling had flattened and dirtied.

Kakashi suddenly straightened up and dropped his kunai onto the ground where it sunk into the snow. He just stood there, starring at the two.

"Fine. If you two are that weak-willed, if you are willing to kill all the hopes of those in the village to kill the dreams of Sakura struggling to get back to us, then fine."

He starred at them, head tilted.

"After all these years living in the village, growing up in the Academy, you still don't get it. It's not about the individual, spirit," and here he turned to acknowledge the Black Mark with a quirk of his eyebrow split by the scar over his eye. "It's about the Konoha spirit, no matter what you have come to believe. So you've been betrayed and hurt. Others have as well. Who will protect those that are weak if all who are strong spend all their lives, their time and energy killing each other? You were a Konoha shinobi once. Do you hold with nothing of the Konoha spirit? Will you let hatred and vengeance toward one killer taint your very soul?"

Sasu-Naru was starring at him now, the words having begun to seep in somehow, and they starred at their teacher with mouth slightly open. Kakashi reached up and pulled off his forehead protector, scarred and buffed from his recent scuffles, and held it up, his warm breath steaming in the cold.

"Do none of you remember what this means anymore?" Sasu-Naru grasped the snow under their combined hands. They looked up with sad eyes, all the years of loneliness and pain that the spirit had unlocked from the depths of their soul in order to blind them into a numbing obedience now a piercing emptiness in their teary eyes.

"Sensei…we can die for the village, to protect the people, to protect the Konoha spirit."

"But sensei…who will protect us when we are alone? Who will die for us?"

AN: sorry this took a while. Hope you enjoyed. I tried to make it just a little longer. Please review and tell me what you think about how the story is going. Thanks!


	10. Never Ending Road

Disclaimer: Nothing. I don't own nothing. Lalalalalala….

Author's Note: Here's the next update! So sorry to make you wait so long! Gomen Nasai!

CHAPTER 10

"Why do you need someone to die for you?" Kakashi's voice had a slight bored tone, and he leaned back a little, shifting his body weight onto his right leg. Something about his eyes, a deep gleam that shone from within them caught Sasu-Naru and the two who were one starred at him with eyes that gleamed with half-shed tears. Kakashi reached up with one hand and scratched his silvery grey hair, cocking a masked face at them as if waiting for an answer.

The wind blew up chilling water and sprayed it onto the impromptu snowy battleground of the leaf ninjas. The older man looked down at his forehead protector and casually rubbed at the scratches on the metal. The steel was cold but he didn't feel it much as the mix of wet water soaking into his uniform and cold frosty air had chilled his hands and body to numbing insensitivity. Pain was not there so much as a cold lack of any feeling at all. His breath mixed with the air and dissipated.

"Don't be pathetic," he said softly, a cocky slant to his sleepy-looking eye. The sharingan was closed, conserving the remainder of his chakra.

* * *

"Hokage-sama!" Arms reached out to grab at the Hokage, hands reaching and pulling desperately on his long sleeves. The Third turned and dismissed the Anbu team with a slight nod of his head before turning back to the child before him.

The pink-haired girl had a set face of determined single-mindedness, the large dog next to him starring non-chalantly down the long corridor.

"I'm going with you Hokage-sama."

The Third breathed in deeply and tapped his long pipe.

"I'm bringing two Anbu teams with me. You will stay here and wait until we meet you back here at the village, Sakura." He took a long draw of his pipe and turned to leave but she refused to let go of him, pulling him back to her.

"But Hokage-sama!"

"It's too dangerous. We won't be able to protect you if something should happen. It'll be much safer for you if you wait here for them."

Sakura refused to let him go, moving quickly to step right in front of the Third, forcing him to stop in his steps.

"Kakashi sensei always says that we're a team. No one ever abandons anyone else for any reason. He sent me here with Kuroune because that was my job, that was my mission just like theirs was to watch the spring. Now my mission is over and they're waiting for me to come back. I have to get back to my team."

_"Sakura."_ The soft sound of his voice came to her.

_"We will be here. Waiting for you to get back." _His eyes meeting hers, indecipherable in words, but understanding in empathy.

_"Don't take too long."_

_:Wait for me, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto…Sasuke-kun:_

"They're waiting for me, Hokage-sama."

The Third starred at her, her eyes narrowed and determined, and he was reminded of watching another girl, not much younger than her, sobbing and beating at someone else, crying because she had been one of the ones left behind.

Kakashi didn't used to have such a strong sense of companionship and teamwork. He was a child prodigy, a genius tactician and one of the strongest of the leaf. But he'd lacked empathy to work with others, lacked the ability to see the world as more than just black and white.

* * *

The small girl beat at the Blonde jounin's stomach and chest with her fists, yelling at him.

"We should have been with him, sensei! You told us that we're a team! A team works together!" A dark haired boy with big goggles covering his eyes stood to the back of her, reaching out with one hand as if to comfort her, then let it drop to his side again.

"If we'd been there…If I had been there…Kakashi might not have been this badly injured!" The girl ninja yelled at the Fourth who said nothing, just looked down as she grabbed at his green jounin vest.

"I'm the medic ninja. It was my job…our team is suppose to work together. But sensei…you didn't let me …us…go."

"Rin…"Yondaime didn't finish, just shook his head a little and directed his gaze at the third member of the team.

"Obito, take Rin back to her place. You guys can visit Kakashi tomorrow."

The boy glanced at the girl with tears plastering her hair to her face and looked back at their teacher, hesitant.

"Sensei-"

"Go." The boy took Rin by the arm and guided her out of the hospital room and down the corridor, their steps and her soft weeping fading. The Fourth said nothing but moved back up unsteadily until he reached the wall and then leaned his head back, silent. The Third waited a few minutes before stepping into the hospital room. Kakashi had always been a slender child but bundled in hospital white, he looked fragile, the sound of his breathing muffled through an oxygen mask. Yondaime didn't look at him, but kept his eyes closed. The Third puffed on his long pipe and looked over Kakashi in the hospital bed.

"You never had this kind of problem with Anbu teams."

Yondaime gave a little humorless laugh.

"Yea…kids, they just seem to get to me more." He sighed and turned to the Third, his teacher's teacher.

"It was an A rank mission. Kakashi shouldn't even had gone, but there was no choice. Everyone is fighting, everyone is over-whelmed by missions and he is a Chunnin regardless of age. If…" He faltered a little but recovered and continued.

"If Rin and Obito had gone with him, they probably would have all died. Kakashi can't protect his whole team and successfully complete that mission. The others' levels just aren't high enough yet. They should understand…"

"So you sent him off on a solo mission and prevented the others from following?"

The Fourth sighed and nodded.

"It was a no-win situation. But now…now I feel like I've made a mistake."

He continued in the soft gentle voice of his. Not for the first time, the Fourth could see the almost child-like youthfulness of the Hokage that he'd chosen.

"Are you unsure of your own decisions for your team?"

The fourth looked away from him, at the wall, searching for some private answer. When he didn't seem to find what he was hoping for, he look back at the boy-child lying next to them, tiny in the huge hospital bed.

"Teamwork is more than just the ones fighting physically but also those that support mentally. Even though when ninjas go out it may be in ones or twos or teams, the mental support of the entire village is behind them. It shouldn't matter that the other two weren't there, they are still a team. But for the other two…I think I underestimated my own team for once. Rin and Obito are just as important to the integrity of the team as Kakashi is. Sometimes you try to change things so that if works out to what you want it to be, to plan everything so it'll go as you expect it to go. But even a Hokage makes mistakes. I was wrong to separate them so."

The Third brought his pipe up to his mouth and puffed out a small cloud of smoke.

"Hindsight is always easy to see. Sometimes, leaders, Kages, are like parents. You spend so much time and energy trying to protect, trying to guide your team into a perfect and safe existence, trying to plan everything out. We're like a parent, never wanting our children, our ninjas to be hurt. The village is like our family. But parents can never replace experience." He tapped his pipe a little before returning it to the corner of his mouth.

"Children always have to get hurt before they learn and undertstand. But sometimes, when they get hurt, it's the parents that learn. You're never too old to learn something new." The Fourth laughed at the look that Sarutobi gave him. He opened his mouth to reply but a sharp voice interrupted him.

"Hokage-sama! Sandaime-sama!" Kyoko, the nurse in charge of Kakashi stood at the opening to the door fuming at the two ninjas.

"Smoking! In a hospital? You two should know better!"

* * *

The Third looked at the girl child in front of him, starring him down, daring him to leave without her.

_:Never to old to learn something new…or at least remember a lesson forgotten.:_

"Go wait outside with the Anbu team, Sakura. We'll bring you back to your team." The bright glow of joy and hope on her face touched him as her mouth opened and closed, unable to express her thanks. She turned to leave and then suddenly spun back and gave him a hug before leaving hurriedly, embarrassed at her own display of affection.

Sarutobi stopped walking down the hall and looked up at the wall where portraits of the Hokages of the Leaf Village of Konoha hung on the wall. He stopped and looked up at the un-lined face of the shyly smiling Yondaime, his hair a bright yellow splash, eyes crinkled in a smile.

"This is your legacy, child. This is your team too, your next generation. Kakashi is as much your son as Hatake's. Guard him well, wherever you are." He kept walking down the hall and stepped out of the building.

* * *

Sasu-Naru spun up from their crouch on the ground and landed on their two legs standing straight up on the ground. They turned their face partially and only Naruto's gleaming familiar eye looked back at Kakashi, a slight smirk twitching the corner of his lip.

"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei. We won't let you down. Even if we die, we won't betray the village of Konoha and all that it stands for." A slight shift of the body and Sasuke's side came into view.

"Once we come to agreement, the Spirit lost its total hold on us. We have regained control of our body again, sensei." The solemn boy's dark eyes starred out strongly from under the shaded dark bangs that fell over his forehead.

"Spirit! Get ready to receive a major ass-whooping!" Naruto's unmistakable tone of voice called out in challenge as the boys raced towards the spring. Their hands moved together, unsure at first about how to work together, but then more confidently flashing in a jutsu as a huge fireball was created and shot at the spring.

"No spring means no power!" The fireball blasted at the spring. The water roared up in a furry of giant waves as the Spirit reformed in its physical form on top. Sasu-Naru skidded across the edge of the spring, trying to stay just out of reach of the water's liquid grasp.

_:Fools! If I can't use you, then you'll be the first I kill:

* * *

_

AN: Thank you for reading (and reviewing!) You're all so kind to me. I love reading all your comments on this story. I know I'm not a very good writer, but I hope my meager share in the fandom world has perhaps added something to think about at least. Keep reading & revieiw and I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP. Au Revoir!


	11. The Yondaime's Shadow

Disclaimer: Own nada.

Author's Note: Finals Season! This quarter of college has been busy busy for me, so I sincerely apologize for not updating sooner. I hope this (kinda) makes it up to you. " enjoy!

CHAPTER 11

_:the snow is bleeding:_ Sasuke thought in a brief moment of poetic irony, as the still powdery top layer of snow near the spring's bank slashed upwards into the air, spraying the air with white and red, the blood from their former fights having stained it a medley of pink, red, and white.

_:it's sort of beautiful in a weird way….beautiful but sad …like sakura petals in the spring:_ Sasuke's almost absentminded observation caught Naruto's attention, who gave the ninja a mental kick.

_:Oi! Sasuke! Focus here:_ The two ninjas charged once again at the spring, two in one, their shared body racing towards the spring, fighting an enemy embodied in the very land itself.

The water funneled upwards, a huge cresting wave that roared in its power and motion. Naruto wondered in amazement how so much water could be contained in the spring.

"How far does this thing extend to, Kakashi sensei!"

The jounin skidded to the side, vaulting with the help of a handful of the cold, stained snow, fingers digging lightly into the rough dirt below.

"Ground water. He probably as the ability to summon the water contained in the mountain tops and other springs connected to his through underground waterways." The Jounin's eye narrowed as he saw the huge wave rise up, unsteady in all its frightening glory.

:Even with jutsus, if we were to be dragged down into his domain, into that water….even I will not be able to fight free.:

"Sasuke! Naruto! Don't do anything rash! Be careful!"

The younger ninja pair dashed upwards without regard, their hands spinning.

"Grand Fireball No Jutsu!" The fire bellowed in all its glory toward the spring and seemed to block out the ninjas' view of the wave, at least for a brief moment. And then the wave rose up and swallowed the huge line of fire, rising up and up, a monstrosity that blocked out the sun, shadows streaking out the light above.

"What..what the!" Naru-Sasu gasped out, their eyes widened at the utterly ineffective result of their blow. Kakashi starred grimly as the wave slowed and stopped at its full height, the crest of the wave higher than any building they had in Konoha. And then the wave came crashing down, falling and falling, deafening the sounds of the forest around them, a roaring scream. Whether the scream was merely the scream of the water or the scream of the spirit in hatred and contempt towards them was indiscernible but the dark fury of the water was still the same either way.

Kakashi grabbed at Naru-Sasu just as the water bellowed towards them, racing away from the spring, the water spitting and snarling mere inches behind them. The smaller boy was bounced as their teacher physically dragged them away and they fought to get back to their own feet.

"Sensei!" Naru-Sasu yelled not understanding why he wouldn't let go, fighting Kakashi's grip. The Jounin turned his head and seemed to say something, but his words were torn away by the sweltering roar of the gushing water.

And then the water was upon them. The air was replaced by gushing black-blue liquid, water that smothered them, that bound them up in a prison the grabbed and held them, dragging them downwards, farther and farther into the heart of the darkness. Sasuke screamed in his head as the light of day seemed to disappear forever. He screamed and he could hear Naruto screaming as well, the two of them locked in this dark water, and the cold swallowing up the sounds that they made even in their brain. They were going to die and this would be the last day of their life.

_:coldfearhatescared:_

_:fearcoldwherequestionssensei:_

_:helpfearterrorshadowshatescaredfearcold:_

_:scaredfearcominghelpsenseicoldpainfearcoldfearfearfear---:_

The water grabbed at them, holding them, kissing them. They rose and fell and fell and rose as the water threw them, held them, and funneled them down. Naruto didn't know where Kakashi sensei was, he couldn't see anything but flashes and bursts of blue and black and bubbles frothing up. He tried to thrash in offense in the water, tried to kick his way up even as he felt Sasuke do the same thing, but the water held them down. The more they kicked the deeper they seemed to sink and the more they thrashed the more the water became like a tight web, choking around them.

_:You are me. You are mine. You will kill for me, take revenge for me, hunt down the others for me. And if you won't, you will die for me:_ A whispered voice in their heads told them, embittered. Naru-Sasu's eyes widened in unfeigned terror and shock as momentarily, what seemed like dark grayish blue eyes, looked out from within the water at them, then disappeared. Only when they had vanished did it register in their minds.

:He looked…sad. And unhappy.:

Kakashi grabbed around him even as he fell, sucked underneath the surface of the humungous tidal wave, comprising of all the water called up by the spirit from springs and underground reserves miles away. His arms pushed away heavily but forcefully in the water, waving outwards to grab at the students that had been stolen from his grip when the wave had broken on them.

_:Kai!Release:_ He formed the symbols with his hand and in some strange way wrote the jutsu onto the water with blood. Managing to break the surface for a brief moment, this gave him enough time to notice with his sharp right eye that the boys had not come up for air. His eye set with a grim shadow, he dove back down in to the darkness of the spring's abyss.

_:You can get free. I know he taught you well. You are his. Let me have these two. Leave me be. Give me peace in my revenge:_

He dove deeper, hands and fingers outstretched in the turmoil of the water as he fought against the spirits will to find the boys.

_:They aren't yours nor mines. They belong to Konoha and themselves. I won't let you kill them with this death. They won't die.: _Kakashi called to him in his mind, knowing that the spirit could hear him this way. His eye darted back and forth.

:I will destroy their souls if I have to. I can use their bodies just as well, even without their minds. I will. And you will hate me and come and then I will use them to kill you. At that time, you will know how I feel. I want you to know how I feel:

_:I just want you to know how I feel:_ The spirit whispered.

Kakashi could feel the water getting closer, the darkness closing in. With this energy level soaring at inhuman levels, he wondered if he could break the surface again, if even jutsu could stop the spirit from killing them all.

_ :No, not just killing. Taking Naruto and Sasuke's bodies and using them as tools for killing innocents, all for a crime committed long ago.:_

His hand closed on heavy fabric. He couldn't pull them up, his strength was at his limit as he tried to use his chakra and throw them out of the water's possession. He knew they were at a dark end.

_:I –:_

He tore off his bandage with his teeth, tasting blood through the wet soaked fabric of his black mask.

:-will-:

The water pulsed around him. Naru-Sasu's form seemed to blur as their eyes began to roll up, revealing the whites of their eyes. The weight in his arm was shifting, sometime light, sometimes heavy as their bodies blurred from one to two and one. They were slowly dying from lack of oxygen and it was causing whatever powers the spirit had to used to meld them to lose its control. However, this also meant twice the mass Kakashi had to bring out of the water's iron grip.

:-not-:

He slashed at his wounds until blood blossomed freely from his uniform into the murkiness of the water.

:-let-:

He held the two boys tightly as he struggled to stay merely at the same level beneath the water. He knew what he had to do and he would have no regrets.

:-you-:

Blood smeared only their faces, bodies and arms. Sigils were scribbled, glowing, flaring blue markings all over where the blood marked them, written with blood, a finger, and chakra.

_:-die:_

The three burned away at the water, forcing it to let go as the water broke away from them, the inky dark cloud shooting back away from them as Kakashi thrust upwards with all his might, eye straining to catch at the filtered light of above.

They burst through the top of the water and Kakashi shook the two boys, both of which began to choke and cough and gurgle out water. He fought the waves to get closer to the ground around them, now flooded everywhere by the water, the snow melted into clumps of ice and mush. Ice floated around them, the water cold enough though that they did not notice.

_:Please, help them live….sensei: _He whispered inside and with the last of his burnt out strength, he thrust the pair out of the water and onto land, letting them tumble over and over until they landed in a clump of half-dead plants a little bit away before falling down into the water, exhausted. For a moment, as the water rushed up behind him, his shoulders slumped as he knelt in the darkness pooling around him, he managed to look up at them. Sasuke forced himself shakily up as he starred directly at his teacher.

_Remember_, his eye seemed to say. Then he turned his head up, as if to welcome the surrounding swells of darkness that would drown and drag him down into them again.

"I will die to protect you." He whispered with a half smile to his closed eye.

Sasuke wondered who he was speaking to even as the waters closed over him and he was lost to them.

Naruto's eyes were wide and in horror as he screamed out, the two of them weakly pushing themselves up but unable to stop anything from happening.

"SENSEI!"


	12. Spirit and Sacrifice

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, blah blah, no money so don't sue…..

Author's Note: I'm so soo sorry, and I once again apologize for the delay in the story. It's close to being finished, just about two more chapters. (I'm almost 100 sure… ) and I hope you will please please REVIEW with each chapter you read. I LOVE reviews!!

* * *

CHAPTER 12

Sasuke could hear his own breath. It rasped, a harsh noise, one that didn't sound like him at all, a weak sound in the cold frigid air. In front of him, the water of the spring had gone still, an eerie calmness, not a ripple marring the surface.

Not a bubble of air appearing to break the black sheen that gleamed.

"Kakashi…sensei," he whispered, the events of the last few minutes, such long minutes, just starting to seep in. His head was still a blurred pain, throbbing and muffled. He tried to get up, his movements weak and uncertain. His eyes unfocused as he gasped, mind reeling from dizziness as if it were trying to get used to being back in control.

Next to him, Naruto choked, coughing in spasms as he vomited water and liquidy remnants of the morning's meal, now so long ago, onto the trodden banks of snow and dirt. Sasuke's throat burned with vomit but he held down the urge to gag, forcing himself with all of the will he had. He would not humiliate himself, not even now.

Naruto picked himself up onto his knees, his face pale and teeth chattering now that the wind was starting to blow.

"Sen-sensei!" He yelled at the spring, the sound hollow.

"Sensei! Kakashi sensei!"

"SENSEI!!!" His voice howled as it continued to ring out in the empty surroundings.

Naruto was angry, bitter and humiliated. After all that had happened, after Haku, after Zabuza, he had still failed. He still did not have the power to prove himself. And now, Kakashi sensei, the idiot who was always late with a million excuses, none that made sense. The pervert who read his stupid Ichi Ichi Para while tying them up in trees during training, who could slurp ramen in under a minute, who drank sake till he was pink. The teacher who dropped off groceries at random times at his apartment when he found out Naruto had a tendency to live off of instant noodle cups. The teacher that had thrown away his life so they would live, was gone.

Kakashi was gone.

Sasuke felt a presence behind him, a slight shift in the packed grey snow, only a split second earlier before the voices and the hand upon his shoulder reached him.

"There they are!" Reinforcements had finally arrived.

_But it's too late._ Sasuke thought, strangely detached from the whole situation now, as he watched the masked elite force of Konoha shot forward in individual flashes of speed, setting up a octagonal formation around the outer edges of the now much more tranquil water. Destruction left by the waves and powerful swells of just minutes ago were still obvious though in the broken remnants of trees and chaotic piling of melting snow and muddy puddles all around.

Masked anbu faces were everywhere, animalistic designs painted with red and black designs watching the spring from all sides, scrolls set out and curse sealers, the anbu grouping into formation as they performed jutsus. And from the side of the forest, a bobbing head in a wide-brimmed hat appeared, the Hokage moving fast for his age, his usual pipe forsaken. And at his side, a small familiar figure with pink hair bobbed as she raced towards them, unmistakable tears flying from her face.

"Sasauke! Naruto-kun!" She was held back by an anbu with beautiful long black hair and the usual cold white mask, with instructions that the medic team needed to see them first. She fidgeted from behind the obstructing arm, seeing the worn out teammates with all the tell-tale signs of battle-wounds. And that was when she noticed.

"Naruto-kun…where is Kakashi sensei?"

Neither of the boys could meet her questioning eyes. For once, both of the boys were quiet, submissive as the medical team looked them over and began to apply ointments and wraps. Neither of them could say a word as inside, an emptiness filled them to the pits of their stomach.

The Hokage gave them a slow glance as he walked slowly now, approaching the edge of the spring where a barely visible web of chakra could be seen coursing through the seal the anbu team had placed. One of his team leaders moved to approach him, perhaps to warn him of the dangers but a quick wave of the hand sent him back. The Hokage knew exactly what he was dealing with here. This was his mistake. His own personal failure. This was the price he had made the whole village suffer for because of his own negligence, his own belief that there was good in everyone. A painful memory of the Fourth flashed through his mind. He had nearly destroyed one generation because of his failures as a teacher, and now he might be destroying another.

"Spirit. Black mark." He called to the still dark water.

The water did not move at first. But after a few seconds, it began to ripple, a cyclone swirling in the middle to fountain upwards into the form of a man made of water.

_Sandaime._

"It has been years. We were not sure if there were any more of you out there. It's time to come home now. Time to return and find peace."

The figure didn't say anything, its featureless face just turning as if to watch him. The hokage sighed gently. The mark brought back the memories of his own students, his powerful and proud student that threw away not only his own life but the life of his own village to attain greatness. Sandaime knew that when he chose the young handsome blonde man Yondaime to head the village he had made the right choice. Young, ambitious, and willing to do anything to protect the Leaf, the Fourth would live to prove out his promises to the Third. But Orochimaru had never forgiven him, and on that day, he had lost the young man he had raised to adulthood and a monster had been reborn.

"He…is still out there. But we will find him one day. And he will pay for the crimes he committed and the lives he took." He spoke with a softer tone, his voice sad and regretful.

"Its time to come home though. Time for you to receive peace and rest."

The spirit moved closer to him and he could feel the tension behind him as the anbu teams edged closer, the hands holding signs and jutsu becoming more alert.

_Why did he not just give them to me? I would have found peace. Then you would have known how I felt. _

_Why did he sacrifice himself?_

The hokage's face showed no change but in his eyes, he saw once more, as he saw in his dreams sometimes, the moments before the sealing of the Kyuubi, when the final decision was made, the self-sacrifice of the hokage. Yondaime turned as he left to die for the village he loved, still wearing his smile, speaking his last words to a masked young man with his anbu mask off to his side, but his black face mask forever hiding his emotions, his loses and himself from the world.

_"Our lives are meant for others. We live to protect that which we love. We sacrifice without asking for payment in return, because ours is a Konoha spirit. You live to protect that which is precious. That is why." _He had reached out; giving one last pat on the back to the only student he had left whose name was not carved into a memorial.

_"She would have understood. And he would have done the same. Remember the spirit, and one day, perhaps you will fully understand why" _And he had left to die as he had lived, as a hero to be remembered, admired and mourned.

"Because that is what the Fourth taught him about being a Konoha shinobi. That is what it means to protect. Even if you have to sacrifice yourself, you have to protect that spirit and what is precious." The Third Hokage stared up at the sky, wondering what might have been different if Yondaime had lived. Wondering in a darkened moment of foreshadowing if one day, he'd have to do the same.

_Precious. _The spirit made no movement.

_She was precious to me. Life was precious. Perhaps…I have forgotten. Perhaps he was right. I can find peace._

The Third understood and motioned for an anbu, tall with broad arms to bring forward a seal decorated bottle, small in his large hands.

"We will release you as a hero of the village, one who made a sacrifice to find peace. May you rest there and not be in pain any longer."

As the Hokage signaled for the seal on the spring to be released, the spirit's presense, a black flow of chakra moved up the bank and streamed into the container. As the last of him entered, the figure stopped and turned his form's head towards the hokage.

_Tell him…I'm sorry. _

"Sensei!!" Sakura's voice screamed as Kakashi's still form was washed up facedown from a sudden wave from the water, his vest half-off, his face mask partially torn, the pale skin of his face peeking from underneath the slushy snow it rested in.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

OMG….its been forever, I know. PLEASE don't hate me. TT I've been really busy and things just slipped my mind. Hopefully I will be more on track and will post the ending chapters in the next few weeks. Lots of love. BTW, feel free to check out my other works. v until then, keep READING and REVIEWING!! hint hint hehehe

btw, does anyone know how to make my stupid uploader stop removing my spaces, indents and astericks? it used to be fine but for a long while now, I no longer can indent or have long spaces...hmmm...


	13. Measure of a Shinobi

DISCLAIMER: I don't own much these days….much less Naruto.

Author's Note: I'M NOT DEAD. hides

* * *

CHAPTER 13

"SENSEI!" The only thing faster than the anbu teams was Sakura's scream as Kakashi's body was pulled up forcefully from the waters, dragged onto the dirt and dead grass littered banks. An Anbu with a frightening amount of scars covering the skin above his arm guards felt for Kakashi's pulse at the neck. His head turned towards the waiting medical teams, who stood waiting for the signal it was safe to proceed.

"He's still alive!"

Sakura sobbed, tears trickling down her face openly. At that moment she didn't care if Ino or anyone else would call her a cry-baby. All she knew was that the worst was over. Kakashi-sensei was alive. Everything would be alright, everything would be okay. She wiped her face with the back of one hand, half-hiccupping from crying, and felt a soft pat on her back. An awkward looking Naruto was patting her, lightly and in a way that really didn't help at all. But Sakura didn't care. She looked at Naruto's face covered in dirt smudges and faint streaks of dried blood and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly for a brief moment.

"He-..you-!" She babbled into his orange vest. He patted her back, embarrassed at her openness but touched deep inside. No one had ever hugged him like this before. In fact, no one had ever cared for him before he'd joined Team Seven. His eyes stung and he quickly rubbed at them with his hand.

"There's something…in my eyes." He mumbled as Sakura pulled away, pulling her clothes in place neatly. She smiled at him, eyes shining in her happiness. Looking at her, Naruto could only smile back.

The medical squad brought with the Sandaime consisted of four squad members. The tallest, a pale faced man with long brown hair tied high, was setting up healing scrolls, the complex formulas traced with chakra by medical ninjas back at Konoha. Another was busy cleaning the obvious flesh wounds that marked the silver-haired Jounin, gently rinsing out the dirt and crusted blood in his arm and neck wounds. Stopping at what looked like a bite-wound from a violent animal, she glanced at the two students standing to the side of the lake. What had happened here, before they'd arrived?

Masa, the youngest and newest member of the four-man team held out bandages for her as she wrapped the washed wounds in ointment smeared bandages, a special mixture created by a Konoha medical specialist years ago that sped up healing times by days. As he handed over the last bandage wrap for Kakashi's arm, he realized that the ninja was stirring.

Kakashi's eyes remained closed as before, but his left arm was shifting, almost trembling. It stopped, as if he was collecting his strength, and then his arm raised up, moving hesitantly towards his face.

"You shouldn't move, you've been very badly injured, Kakashi-" Masa protested, reaching out to stop the shinobi from further aggravating his internal injuries. A smaller hand came out of nowhere and slapped his aside. Masa jerked back in shock.

Sasuke's face, a bandage covering a light scratch to his cheek, was grim as he starred back at the medical ninja. Masa's partner pulled at his sleeve and motioned for him to give the young Shinobi some room. Quickly, he moved aside to let Sasuke in, peeking at him out of the corner of his eye as he continued with the administrations.

Kakashi's hand was still reaching up. It finally reached his face after what seemed like an eternity and then tried, slowly pulling at the torn shreds of his face mask, his pale bloodless skin peeking through from the black fabric. Sasuke wanted to laugh. Even now, having escaped death by mere moments, the older man was only worried about keeping his face covered. What was wrong with him?

He knelt though, and pulling his shirt out, began to rip off a thick strip from the bottom of it. The sound of the fabric tearing was loud in the cold morning air, despite the murmurs of conversation drifting over from the Anbu leaders and the Hokage's discussions. Naruto had walked over as well, tailed closely by Sakura. They watched as Sasuke ever so gently wrapped the dark blue strip of cloth around their teacher's face, creating a make-shift facemask. Kakashi's hand stopped it's searching and fell back down, resting on his own shoulder. His normal eye opened slightly and peeking out from under tired lids, his dark gaze caught Sasuke's. His mouth moved a little under his mask and Sasuke leaned forward to catch the words.

_Are you all okay?. _

Sasuke smiled, bitter in realization of what his teacher was trying to say. _You're an idiot, sensei. No one is worth dying for._

"Yes, we're all fine. Sakura has returned with the Hokage as well." He said, aloof in his reassurement. Naruto grinned.

"Yup! We're all good, Kakashi-sensei! Looks like you're gonna be the one needing extra training!" He kidded the prone teacher. Sakura punched him in the side hard.

"Ow! Sakura!"

Her eyebrow twitched as she glared at him.

"You don't say stuff like that to someone who's hurt! Especially if he did it saving you, doofus!" Looking over at a pensive Sasuke, she blushed.

"Right, Sasuke?"

But Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to her or Naruto. He was starring at the dark blue mask Kakashi now wore and his closed eyes, the old ridges of his scar an ugly brown-red against the soft ivory of his skin.

Copy-ninja Kakashi. Kakashi of the ShariganThe man who wore a mask, hiding his emotions, his thoughts and his life.

You're too old now, aren't you, Kakashi. Too old to change, too old to stop hiding yourself, to stop living for the day you'll die protecting others. That's what you were trying to tell me, wasn't it? To stop living for revenge, stop living to die.

"_The Konoha spirit is one of protection, sacrifice and most importantly, love," Kakashi had said, not looking at Sasuke, but smiling into the dark hours of night. The sadness had been genuine, the smile had not._

Sasuke stayed there, even as Masa and the other members of the medical team lifted Kakashi onto a stretcher, moving the ninja to prepare him for return back to the hospital facilities of Konoha. The threat had been neutralized, the Black Mark to be released in quiet ceremony back at the village. Even now, two of the three Anbu teams were departing, silently melting away into the woods, off on missions of retrieval, intelligence or murder, missions only they could carry out.

_I'll try. I…can only promise that, sensei. _Itachi's eyes haunted the dark of his mind even now as he closed his eyes. The hate still burned in his chest, the taint of that same blood, the perfect brother, the perfect murderer mocking him. Killing his beloved brother, killing his hated brother, was the only thing he'd had driving him forward, the only thing he'd had to live for. _How…do I live for myself, sensei? How do I live if I don't have revenge? _

"Yo." Naruto's voice came from in front of him. He slowly raised his head and starred at the face of the blond haired bow. Bright eyes starred right back into his, eyes in a body that he'd shared only a little while ago.

_Demon child! Get away from us!_

"Sakura-chan's following the medical teams."

_Carrier of the fox! Why does the Hokage keep him with the rest of our children?_

"She was worried you'd want some time alone." Naruto grinned at him, his smile quirky but as trademark as the first time they'd stood together in front of Kakashi, the boy announcing to their teacher his goal in life.

"_I'm gonna be the Hokage!"_

Sasuke grinned back and got up off the ground, patting off his pants.

"Ready then, slowpoke?" He quipped, purposefully. Naruto scowled.

"Slowpoke?! You're the slow one! Man, why'd I come get you anyway-" He complained loudly as the two of them headed to join the tail of the Konoha party heading back to the village.

_Living for yourself is hard. But I can always live to protect others, I guess. _

_Is that the stupid kind of thing you'd say, Kakashi-sensei?_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

::bows in embarrassment and misery::

Life….sucks. But here is the much belated next chapter. I think there is only one more to go, so please keep supporting me:D


End file.
